SAVAGE WARFARE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 146, 22 June 1915, Page 7

SAVAGE WARFARE

NO LIMIT TO GERMAN BARBARITY (PROM OUR OWN CORRESTONDENT.) LONDON, 11th May. "It is as w^ll that those at home should realise the almost incredible spirit of savagery which animates the ! Germans," writes "Eye-Witness" on 7th May. "During the fighting north of Ypres a Prussian officer's life was spared by our men, even in the heat of a charge, and in spite of the exasperation caused by the enemy's latest method of making war, and he was made prisoner. While he ■ was being escorted to the reav the party passed some of our men, who were lying in agony on the ground, fighting for breath, their lungs filled with fumes. He stopped, looked at them, burst out laughing, and, pointing to tho prostrate forms, said: 'What do you think of that?' " "Eye- Witness," after recording that certain wounded prisoners, chiefly of the Prussian Guard, have behaved' in hospital with the ferocity of wild beasts, makes the following statement on the use of the poisonous gases: — "The manner in which the German j press gradually prepared the way for the employment of asphyxiating gas ia interesting to note The papers began by falsely accusing the Allies of using it. When the charge of doing so was brought against the Germans the papers argued tliat it was as merciful a method of killing as the firing of high explosive. When certain French writers advocated retaliation in kind the German, press replied with glee that Germany had forestalled the Allies by her scientific experiments and exhaustive preparations. "It. is perhaps vain to point out to Germany that these arguments are mutually destructive, for a nation in her frame of mind is not amenable to logic, but it is quite certain .that the events of the past fortnight have opened a new phase in this struggle. We know now that Germany is bound by no principle, jno agreement of any sort_ or kind ; that 1 she is actuated by a spirit of savagery, I which, if not utterly crushed, will strike at the very root of European civilisation; that this is no longer merely a national war, but a struggle of civilisation against barbarism. "The scenes that have been enacted during the last few days, the sight of their comrades crawling about in agony, moaning for Avater, dying in their tracks like poisoned vermin, have aroused a feeling in our troops — and, it is to bfc hoped, through the British Empire — which, however terrible the struggle before us/ will not allow us to rest until we have exacted full retribution from those responsible for these horrors." MOST AWFUL TORTURE. It is beyond all doubt that British soldiers have died terrible deaths as the result of the asphyxiating gases used by the Germans. A British officer at the western front writes : "Yesterday and the day before I went to see some of the men in hospital who were 'gassed' yesterday and the day bofore on Hill 60. The whole of England and the civilised world ought to have the truth fully brought before them in vivid detail, and not wrapped up as at present. When we got to the hospital we had no difficulty in finding out in which ward the men were, as the noise of the poor fellows trying to get breath was sufficient to din ct us. We were met by a doctor belonging to our division, whotook us into tbs ward. There wereabout 20 of the worst cases in the ward on mattresses, all more or less in a sitting position propped up against £he walls. "Their faces, arms, hands, were -of a shiny, grey-black colour, with mouths open and lead-glazed eyes, all swaging slightly backwards and forwards trying to get breath. It was the most appalling sight, all these poor black, faces, struggling, struggling for life, wha± with the groaning and noise of _ the efforts for breath. There is practically nothing to be done for them except to give them salt and water to try to make them. sick. The effect the gas has is to fill the lungs with a watery frothy matter, which gradually increases and rises tall it fills up the whole lungs and comes up to the mouth ; then they die ; it is smffocation ; slow drowning, taking in some.- cases one or two days. . "Eight died last night out of the twenty I saw, and most of'the others I saw will die, while those "who get over the gas invariably develop acute pneumonia. It is without doubt the most awful form of scientific ttortnre. Not one of the men I saw in*' hospital had a scratch or wound. The/TJiurses and doctors were all working their utmost against this terror, but one could seefrom the tension of their nerves that it was like fighting a hidden danger which was overtaking everyone. A German prisoner was caught with a respirator in his pocket ; the pad was analysed and found to contain hyposulphite of soda, with 1 per cent, of some other substance. "The gas is in aucylinder, from which ,\ihw than. sand. . it* out. it . iß:.nrouelled

distance of 100 yards. It there spreads. English people, men and women, ought to know exactly what is going on — also members of both Houses. The people of England cannot know. The Germans have given out that it is a vapid painless death. The liars ! No torture could be worse than to give them a, dose of their own gas. The gas, lam told, is chlorine, and probably some other gas in the shells they burst. They think ammonia kills it." A HELLISH DEVICE. Another officer writes : "Of all the devilish crimes of which the Germans have been guilty since the war started this one is far away the most devilish, and to try to. excuse it on the ground that it inflicts a quick and painless death, far different from the tornado of shells we let loose at Neuve Chapelle. is blatant lying. We have a lot of men who have been gassed in our hospital. Their moans are awful, and they sit up swaying about, fighting and gasping for breath. Their faces and bodies are a muddy purple black, their eyes glazed, and foam comes from their mouths. Their lungs are turned to liquid, and the doctors say they > have the appearance of men on the point of death from drowning. Nurses and doctors work night and day to give relief. The way the damnable stuff is worked apparently is by sinking in their trenches cylinders or something containing gas. From the cylinder a tube runs up to and through the face of the 1 trench, with a nozzle at the end, and when the wind is favourable for their purpose the gas is pamped out and driven over to our lines. Will this convince people at Home of what the Germans are capable? No law of God or man will hold them in check, and it is mere waste of breath and time to utter | protests. They only gloat over the fact I of their having been so successful." HOW THE POISON WORKS. A captain in the R.A.M.C. describes the tortures of several of the unfortunate men in his hospital : "Poisoning it is, and slow suffocation and the tortures of the damned. Fine, heallthy, strapping fellows till last j night; and now, without scratch or wound — poisoned. About three score I here ; nine dead, dying, or likely to die ; nine more suffocating — drowning! Drowning on shore, surrounded by help and friends. And never a grumble or word of complaint. They are soldiers. But what can you call those who _ are responsible for this fiendish, devilish cruelty that makes the blood boil? " Where one of these gaps is lay a. plucky fine young fellow making a magnificent and desperate struggle for his life. One of his doctors (and these are many, with nurses passing incessantly from patient to patient) said to me : ' I should like to see that fellow pull through j he is game, he has been fighting every minute of the day since 7 this morning.' It was then 3 p,m. He was sitting, propped up and helpless, still cheery and appreciative of what was being done for him; he was being bled; no blood could be got from his veins, so an artery was cut and a pint andi ahalf taken off — it wasi no good; and be sat there with heaving chest and grey face and staring, helpless gaze, game and! grateful to the end— and so he died. " Now for your questions : The menwere as usual in the trenches abotrb 7.30 p.m. when ' look-out ' was shouted and the gas came slowly pouring along the trench and hung there. It has a- sharp, bitter taste and smell. It caught, them in the throat, and made them gasp and choke and lake deep breaths — they could not get their breaths and went giddy — and remembered little more. Next morning early they reached the hospital and one man was dead by 5 a.m. — ten hours. They did better in the open air, and did less well in the ambulances. At the time we have been looking at them, about 35 hours after exposure to the gas (Tie worst ones are in a process of slow drowning, for this reason, as you will have guessed. " The effect of the intense irritation of the bronchial mucous membrane is to produce quantities of clear fluid which fill the_ tubes and canaot be expelled. Death is from suffocation, with almost full consciousness ; you may see one roan signing to a nurse by turning his head vigorously from side to side. lam told, but have not myself seen it, that one post-mortem showed the mucosa and more to be destroyed by the corrosive action of the gas. Very little coughing is heard, hardly any. " Can nothing be done for them? Yes, something can. They are being given quantities of salt and water to drink to make tlrcm sick. Even if they only retch quantities of clear frothy liquid are then expelled from the lungs. When the tubes aTe empty, oxygen is given if possible, and heart stimulants. Patients are best kid on their sides. Artificial breathing is done."